Alena Ahrens

Alena Ahrens is a Contemporary American-Asian artist who is based in the Midwest. She has presented work, residencies, and/or workshops in Chicago, NYC, St. Louis, Czech Republic, and Germany. Her interdisciplinary approach to artmaking is inspired by her dissertation research in contemplative practices and the ontology of the self. Education: 2015-2017 | MFA, School of the Arts Institute of Chicago 2012-2018 | PHD, University of Missouri – St. Louis Workshops: 2015 - Secret of the Golden Flower | NYC 2016 - Ten Dimensions | STL Exhibitions: 2017 - From East to West | Stuttgart 2017 - Denial is Hard to See | Chicago 2015 – Sound Piece II (utterances at this moment in time) | St. Louis 2016 - Deliberate Impulse | Chicago Performance: 2014 - Sound Piece I (untitled) | Chicago 2014 - Re-performing Henry Geldzahler | Chicago 2013 - Happiness | Prague Abstracts + Papers + Reviews + Mentions: poetics of denial: the political unconscious, poetics of the selve[s]: an active aesthetic | an empty place they call home | destruction in the performative | balanced time perspective through performance art: an interdisciplinary approach to wellbeing | performance art: an approach to fostering curiosity and critical thinking | a new paradigm for relational aesthetics | visual quarterly of st. louis | st. louis magazine Residencies: Abandoned Practices | Prague Ox-Bow Arts | Michigan Gedok | Germany